Season 8, Round 3 - Le Mans (FRA)
For the third time this season, the competitors were in the French virtual countryside of the Le Mans Karting International track! A mid-to-high speed track, created some exciting and controversial racing! Westin Workman took his first every qualifying pole position with a 52.932! A stunner! He lead championship leader, Alessandro Ceronetti by a tenth of a second! In P3, Ethan Lampe was 0.01s off of Ceronetti with a 53.077! Khali Atkins and Bill Wright rounded up the top 5 in a messy qualifying session!
The first laps of the Pre-Final were led by Workman, Ceronetti and Lampe who eventually pulled a comfortable lead over the others to battle it out between themselves. However, further back, there were some drivers looking for redemption from the earlier qualifying session, and these drivers were climbing up the order very swiftly. In particular, Aaron Heathman and Justin Adakonis who had to start 16th and 17th, and are both in the top 3 contention places for the championship! Adakonis pulled an impressive comeback, making 13 places on track! Heathman made his way to P7 after an equally great run!
In the closing laps of the Pre-Final, after some position swapping up at the front, Ceronetti and Workman got caught into a spin with eachother, therefore promoting Lampe to a commanding victory. Workman was demoted to P2 and Ceronetti came off worse, back in P5. Top Amateur finisher was Bill Wright, whom qualified in his best position in his OKC career, finished his Pre-Final in P8. Ethan Ling made a comeback to OKC after 7 Seasons and placed an impressive P12 in a not at all bad Pre-Final!
A series of penalties completely flipped our classification, in terms our Final grid! Lampe recieved a penalty, that demtoed him to P3, and promoted Workman and Rowan Gill to the front row. Adakonis would join row 2 with Lampe with Heathman and Wright behind them in row 3. Carmine Caruso and Sam Bailey made up the 4th row. Ceronetti rounds up the top 10 starters.
In the final, Workman led the first turns away, with Lampe and Heathman following behind, who had good starts. Heathman soon made a mistake which dropped him behind the pack for the fight of P3, which extended to P9! Heathman quickly made his way back up to P5. In the meantime, Lampe and Workman took this as an opportunity to pull away from the rest. Atkins was quickly making his way up the field after being dropped back to P7. Adakonis was caught into a spin with Atkins, dropping Adakonis back to P12. While fighting for P5, gravity got the better of Atkins, sending him to a flip. Fortunately, it was a virtual flip so driver and kart were OK! Only harmed were his championship points. In the meantime, Gill managed to pull away a gap to consolidate his P3 over Aaron Heathman. Coming in behind was Ceronetti, who was setting fastest lap over fastest lap after going on the grass in the opening laps. He quickly made his way pass his team-mate, Heathman to then chase after Gill and overtake him. Further back, Adakonis was making ground too, following his earlier spin, and put Heathman in his radar for P5.
Many lead changes both at the front and for the amateur class! As Workman and Lampe kept on overtaking eachother to find out who's pace was the best, Bill Wright and Caruso were having an epic battle for the top merits of the Amateur class, for P8. Dylan Denhaese was soon to join them, as he was having a great race from P14. No threat from anyone for the leading duo as they managed to maintain a 3 second gap from Ceronetti in P3, who was running a lonely race in the closing stages. Adakonis was rapidly approaching Heathman, and Gill was on another lonely race in P4.
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A dramatic finale hit us though, as Workman fell into a mistake and took his CV Performance Group machine into a spin. Ceronetti followed up on the same corner, but managed to fall in front of Workman, with the two on eachothers bumpers by the finish line, as Lampe took a commanding victory! Gill was P4 and Heathman and Adakonis in P5 and P6. Bill Wright won the Amateur battle against Caruso and Denhaese, whom finished P7, P8 and P9! Rounding up the top 10 was the brit, Sam Bailey, whom was also top privateer finisher.
Ceronetti further extends his lead in the championship to 9 points over Adakonis who is P2. Heathman and Gill both follow Adakonis within a few points, making it a tight battle! One mistake for anyone and it could be over. Lampe moves his way to P5 with his win.
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Caruso leads the way in the amateur standings, in P7, with Denhaese tie on points with Caruso! It's a close one!
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Next race is at Casteletto di Branduzzo (ITA)! A circuit that brought us some exciting racing last season! We are not expecting anything less this season!
